The medical car does a full lap. And it'd have to be like...3 times slower than an F1 car to get caught half way around it's own lap. Ie at a track where an F1 car is doing a 1 minute lap and the medical car is doing a 3 minute lap, the F1 car would be half way into it's second lap at 1:30 and the medical car would be at 1:30 half way around it's first lap.

And Singapore had race laps near 2 minutes and safety car laps near 3 minutes.

So not really going to happen. But it could if you had a medical car follow the Indycar field on a short oval.

By the time the F1 cars reach the end of the first lap, the medical car will be a mile down the road. When the F1 cars reach that spot, the medical car will be a third of a mile further along the track, and the F1 cars will have to catch up again. By which time the medical car will have moved on further. So the medical car will never be overtaken. Not sure if Zeno had Jarno Trulli in mind driving the medical car when he came up with that one...

By the time the F1 cars reach the end of the first lap, the medical car will be a mile down the road. When the F1 cars reach that spot, the medical car will be a third of a mile further along the track, and the F1 cars will have to catch up again. By which time the medical car will have moved on further. So the medical car will never be overtaken. Not sure if Zeno had Jarno Trulli in mind driving the medical car when he came up with that one...

I read Ross's response and was ready to respond with a Zeno-related post...you're on top form as usual.

Don't know but Canada last year must be among the contenders with 6 SC periods http://www.forix.com...7...amp;b=0&s=0 including the end of part 1 and the start of part 2 shown here as a continuity.Anybody knows other candidates?

I'm sure someone who actually has any idea about technical side of F1 will explain it better, but my understanding is that differential is a device/system which controls the difference between the rate at which F1's car rear wheels spin - when a car is turning the inside wheel has a shorter distance to travel than the outside wheel, so by playing with that one can have a better cornering speed. But also, too much of a difference between the wheels will hurt straight line acceleration (I think? but it seems like both wheels should spin at exactly the same rate for optimum acceleration for me) so, as always, a balance is needed.

edit: @mods: How about sticking this thread? It might help reducing the number of actually valuable threads which only get a few responses.

Whats the delay in seconds if any, between the actual race and the feed we see on TV. I ask because I see guys from paddock, RE etc watching the same feed as ours.

I think it depends on a lot things, mostly on whether you have digital or analogue feed - Digital adds a good few seconds of delay. Sometimes the delay is seen on tv, when a picture cuts to someone watching a tv and you see the delay when the picture on the tv screen changes from the previous to the current shot. I think it's 1-2 seconds.

I'm sure someone who actually has any idea about technical side of F1 will explain it better, but my understanding is that differential is a device/system which controls the difference between the rate at which F1's car rear wheels spin - when a car is turning the inside wheel has a shorter distance to travel than the outside wheel, so by playing with that one can have a better cornering speed. But also, too much of a difference between the wheels will hurt straight line acceleration (I think? but it seems like both wheels should spin at exactly the same rate for optimum acceleration for me) so, as always, a balance is needed.

edit: @mods: How about sticking this thread? It might help reducing the number of actually valuable threads which only get a few responses.

That's pretty much how I understand it as well. You can use it to alter the oversteer/understeer characteristics on accelleration out of corners as well

Who pays if the driver is caught speeding in the pit lane?
Who pays when a team member makes a mistake (ie sends a car in front of another car in pitlane) and the team gets fined? Do they deduct some money from the team members wage?
Who pays for driver's boots?
Who pays for the driver's helmet?
Who pays for the driver's firesuit?
Who pays for the drivers' travel expenses?
Who pays for the car thet the driver uses to drive around in?
Who pays the drivers' phone bill?

As superdelphinus said, the differential controls the torque applied to each wheel which gives different levels of wheelspeed.

A locked diff is where the inside and outside rear wheels travel the same speed at all times (like an Australian V8 Supercar). This is understeer city. The car wants to drive straight as the inside rear wheel is still driving forward.

The more you open the diff the more relative wheelspeed you get. I dont have much experience with diff's (especially the f1 style where you can control the locking throughout the corner), but the more you open them the more turn/rotation/yaw you get. So if the car suffers from entry oversteer lock the diff up on entry (to create understeer).

The locked diff is better in theory for corner exit as it reduces the (unloaded) inside wheel spinning.

In theory you can tune the diff for each phase of the corner (entry, mid, exit) to get the desired balance. I assume this is what they play with over the stint as the tyres go and the balance may shift. Also overnight when you cant change any physical settings, you can still utilise different diff maps in the ECU to trim the balance for the next day.

Who pays if the driver is caught speeding in the pit lane?Who pays when a team member makes a mistake (ie sends a car in front of another car in pitlane) and the team gets fined? Do they deduct some money from the team members wage?Who pays for driver's boots?Who pays for the driver's helmet?Who pays for the driver's firesuit?Who pays for the drivers' travel expenses?Who pays for the car thet the driver uses to drive around in?Who pays the drivers' phone bill?

It depends on the team for driver fines. I have heard that some teams force the driver to pay for speeding fines - rightly so - and HRT probably doesn't even have the choice.

The rest would be the team, after all it's their sponsorship that adorns most of it. The exception is probably sponsors providing their own gear to the drivers at times.